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Going from Being a Mill Worker to a Truck Driver

I worked for a local manufacturing facility for over 20 years. Foreign undercutting of prices caused us to suffer wage freezes and wage cuts. Finally, we could no longer profitably produce our products. It became impossible to set prices high enough to sustain a living wage and keep the mill open due to cheap imports. When the plant closed, I looked at free CDL training schools to change careers.

I did not want to become a truck driver, but I knew it was a steady job. Living within a few hours of a shipping port where giant container ships come in laden with these foreign-made products, I knew they needed a huge army of truck drivers to get the goods to their final destinations. Even if it is hauled by rail across the country, the final leg of the trip to the stores is done by trucks.

A CDL license was a ticket to job security. I did not get the wage and benefits I used to enjoy in the heyday of the mill where I gave two decades of my life, but I was earning enough to pay the bills. What really made it nice was when my wife decided to go through one of the free CDL training schools to be able to get her truck-driving license. Our kids where all grown and living on their own, and we decided to downsize and drive truck. We took some of the money from the sale of our larger home and invested in a truck that had a living quarters much like a small RV.

We began to enjoy life on the road. We had our issues with bad drivers that shared the road, and we learned the ins and outs of being owner-operators. However, it was really fun to see the vast land that is the country we enjoy being citizens of.